Dead Last
by GuardianOfMuse
Summary: A birthday fic for Naruto's birthday! Strange events are happening to Naruto when he's alone on his birthday. However, it's a good thing that friends are there to cheer you up, right?


**AN:** I'm not dead, no. But I am close in being. It's called college. Enjoy! Oh yeah….

**SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.**

Dead Last

"How long do you have to suffer for?"

"Yes, how long?"

"I don't know…"The despondent teenage boy answered, falling through the darkness with his knees drawn up to his chest, his heartbeat and the voices the only things resonating through the pitch black that surrounded him.

"I don't know…"

He repeated himself, stretching his naked body out as he began opening his clear blue eyes, searching…searching…always searching…

"How am I suffering again…?"

"Sasuke-teme."

"Yeah, that bastard."

"You can't get anything in life because of him. He's made you suffer so much." The voices seemed to all speak together but not at the same time. "But I'm okay…I'll be okay…I chose this path…"

"Liar."

"Fool."

"She forced you to choose this path. You could have had her all to yourself but you decided to do the more noble thing. Idiot."

"Dead last."

The boy stopped and now began searching for the voices. A glimmer of light opened up to the side of him, he began floating towards it, feeling warm and feeling its welcoming glow. "This is what you want, isn't it?"

"Isn't it, Naruto?"

"I can't see anything."Naruto responded to the voices, squinting his eyes. "What is it?" He asked the voices, feeling the warmth once again wash over his body and prick his skin. He closed his eyes and savored it, drinking it deeply through his pores and feeling the love he wanted. Once he opened his eyes, his heart sank into his gut and he realized what lay before him—a future he could have had. Water sprang to his eyes as he saw that he wasn't what he dreamed to be, rather he was a simple shinobi still working for Tsunade, accepting his orders and going home to prepare. On his way there he ran into his friends who warmed his with greetings and small talk but he stressed how he had to get home before his mission would begin.

Once he would enter the porch to a modest house, he would be welcomed by a woman who's face he could not see and a child in her arms.

Naruto tore his gaze away from the future and clutched his chest, letting tears fall from his eyes as his face contorted in anguish. "This isn't right…"

"That is what you want though, isn't it?"

"NO!"Naruto roared at the voices, his headband slowly forming on his head. "I'm a shinobi of Konoha and one day I will become the Hokage! Not someone plain like that!"

"But you do want that, don't you?"

"It's easy to have all that. Just give up your search."Naruto swung his arms out around him, trying to rid his head of the voices as the fourth Hokage's necklace appeared around his neck and cloak billowed out behind him. "I am his legacy!"He yelled, the voices laughing around him. "Fool. You are nothing. You never were anything. Sasuke took it all away from you." Naruto let out a feral yell but soon found out that he had lost to the voices as he looked down to see that they had stripped him bare of his clothes again save his headband. He pulled it off his head and stared at the symbol of the village in his trembling hand. "You are just a shinobi of the village. You're never going to have your dream fulfilled. We would first die before anything like that would happen." The voices crooned, Naruto turning around quickly as he heard a familiar voice whisper in his ear. An apparition of a grinning Sasuke stood before him, arms crossed as he wore his scratched headband. "Dead last." He flicked Naruto's forehead and everything went black for a fast instant before a bright light filled his vision.

Naruto snapped his eyes open as he bolted up in bed, holding his covers tightly in both hands as his alarm clock rang in its high pitched voice. Slowly, he released the covers from his fists and opened up his hands to find them all sweaty. "Not gonna happen…"He spoke to himself, getting ready for the day, shutting off the alarm clock. He ate a quick breakfast of toast and egg before running out the door, being quickly greeted with the morning sun. He forced a small smile and ran towards the team's meeting point. They were going to take the time to visit the few villages that lived on the borders to ensure that there were no rebellions from either side of the countries. His eyes caught a glimpse of the faces blasted in the mountainside. He gave it a thumbs up and decided to take a more appropriate steps towards his destination instead of blitzing down the street like a maniac.

A sense of dread washed over the teenager when he saw that his teammates weren't waiting for him yet. Sakura was usually early as well so it didn't make any sense to him. He stopped and looked over at the gate guards, pointing to the ground. "Did anyone else come by yet?"

"Just some genin." One answered, shrugging his shoulders. Naruto held onto his chin and looked around until he finally scratched his head, leaning against the gate post. "That stupid dream is making me paranoid…" He muttered to himself, closing his eyes as he thought. "What are you doing today?" The guard tried making small talk with Naruto to help him ease out of his troubled mind and, Naruto being Naruto, it worked. "Border patrol in the villages!"

"Dangerous work." Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "How come?"

"People among the borders are always sketchy. Always scared if someone from either country would attack them. They are the most vital points of a defense system Konoha's set up."

"Defense system…?"

"Yeah, you see we have a place to set up and rest if we need to go into the country over and because it's a border that people have to pass through and show their passports, we know the amount of people entering and exiting the country. But it's also a good place for spies."

"Ah…" Naruto cocked his head to one side as he crossed his arms, making sense of what he said in his mind.

Time passed by slowly for Naruto, but when he finally checked the positioning of the sun, he determined that it was way past time for everyone to meet up and he was getting hungry. "Hey, if anyone comes by asking for me, tell them I went to get some food!"

"Yeah, bring us back something!" They yelled after him, he taking off in one direction. People were busy about the village, setting up for the night that Naruto came to dread the most. It was a day he hated in the end, but one that he knew was unavoidable. To him, he knew it was the day that two of the most important figures in his life faded away to nothingness because of a certain beast he bore. His hand instinctively travelled to his stomach, wondering how many people were lost because of the Kyuubi. With a grumbling belly that told him to forget his woes, she ran off to find the nearest store to buy something simple to eat so that he wouldn't get any stomach cramps from travelling too far.

That's when the whispers began. Slowly at first, but with each festival light that began to turn on, his spirit wavered as if he were being chased off by a demon slayer who's holy light was ridding of the foul demon. He gulped and looked over to the side and ran into the closest store he could find, picking up a packaged bread and slapping a few coins on the table, the cashier giving him a dirty look before counting out all the small change, giving him his bill and seeing him on his way. On his way back, he took quick note of the darkness quickly falling all around him. It was one of the first times in a long time where he didn't feel safe in his own village. He had come to an age where he knew how to defend himself so there wasn't much of a problem, but it was more of a psychological factor where he just didn't feel safe. Eyes were watching him, hovering over him, pulling him into the darkness where he didn't want to be. He found a street lamp the hide under while he pocketed the food and paused to catch his breath, looking around. A hand touched his shoulder, making him jump in the air and pull out a kunai. An elderly man laughed at him, slowly melting into the ground and forming into a puddle. "Genjutsu…!" He questioned no one in particular. He turned around to see no one and then back only to find that the puddle of the old man had vanished into thin air. Paper lanterns went up but no one there to set them up and finally a large version of the Kyuubi popped up, Naruto stumbling a few steps back. The Kyuubi lantern began to come to life as it approached Naruto, step by step until they were finally eye to eye. The blond boy didn't move partially out of fear and partially out of boldness. He already dealt with the Kyuubi more than a few times and this was only a lantern version of him, right?

Laughter erupted from the lantern. First it was a low rumbling but then it turned to a laughter that chilled him to the bone. His eyes widened as the eyes flared up into a fiery inferno and surrounded the boy. In reaction, he covered his face and tried to shield himself from the attack. To his amazement, when he opened his eyes, he was still alive. The village, however, became tiny. He went to scratch his head but his hands felt off somehow, he bringing it to his face to take a closer look at it. His eyes widened as he let out a yell, seeing that they were no longer his own but were orange paws with long claws. Horror filled, he clutched his head and let out a loud howl, laughter erupting all around him. "MONSTER!"

"DEMON!"

"KILL HIM!" The voices spoke louder and louder and with each time they pointed and laughed and compared him to a monster, he would look faster and faster for a way out of this hell. He turned his head up at the sky for a moment, and he couldn't remember why he did so, but he was glad he did for the moon shone brilliantly against the velvet sky, calming his heart. He looked down at the tiny village and gently lay down beside it, closing his eyes as he listened to the villagers. "They're not like this anymore…" He spoke quietly, opening his eyes to see that the village had stood still and wasn't calling out to him anymore. "KAI!"

"KAI!" Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes to see a face shrouded in black. He was tired of the mysteries and games. He wanted to just go on his mission and be doe with it. He wanted to go home.

"Dead last…can't even stand a genjutsu like that." Realization hit him as he put a face to the dark outline—Sasuke. Rubbing his eyes a bit, he knew that it couldn't be real. This couldn't be Sasuke. How did he return to the village!

"Sasuke! How the hell…! Sasuke, I-" Before he had a chance to continue, the face approached his and revealed to be someone else entirely—Sai. Disheartened, Naruto looked away with a bit of shame for calling out his ex-comrade's name like that. "The hell, Sai…?"

"Did I disappoint you that I was not Sasuke?"

"S-shut up!" He yelled back, looking around him. "Where are we? I was at the gates the last time I remember…"

"Yeah, and you walked right out them!" His head snapped over to see Sakura standing before him, her arms akimbo. "Then you bolted! We thought something was wrong so we followed you for a while until Sai managed to catch up to you and find you like this! How long were you under that genjutsu!"

"Dunno." He shrugged stood up from leaning against the tree, looking back to see that the gates were far away but still in sight at the same time. "God, and we weren't even supposed to be going on the stupid mission. Way to ruin a good night, Naruto!" Sakura scolded the boy, slapping him upside the head. Her eyes then wandered over to the village curiously as she held onto her chin. "What did happen though…? You were under that when you were inside the village…? So who could have done that…?"

"I was fine until the gates." He spoke to her shrugging his shoulders a bit. Sai gave a nod and stood up, looking over at Sakura. "Instead of patrolling the bordering villages, maybe we should tighten up security in our own village." He spoke, continuing, "those guards didn't look familiar to me. I know that shinobi usually take turns watching over the gate but these guys didn't seem to belong there. They were too eager to talk to people."

"You know, it's not a sin to be friendly to others." Naruto spoke, rubbing his arm. For some reason it was sore. Probably when they stopped him. "No, but it is a sin to be spying." He turned on his heel and ran towards the gates. Sakura sighed and slumped a bit, turning to Naruto again. She held her hand out to him, smiling faintly. "Last time I checked…Sasuke wasn't here, you're still on the ground, and today's an important day." He took her hand as she hauled him up, she smiling at him. "We're going over to the barbeque hut. Shikamaru's paying for everyone, you know."

"No way! And I wasn't invited!"

"Stupid, it was supposed to be a birthday party that was supposed to take place four hours ago! You missed it because of stupid spies! What kind of ninja are you!" She yelled at him as they walked back to the gates, yells heard in the distance. A sickeningly sweet smile washed over Sakura's face as she stretched her arms forwards. "Mm, Sai's doing a wonderful job!" Naruto gave a quick shiver and looked up at the sky. The moon was hanging in the sky just like in his genjutsu dream. "Hey, Naruto…" He turned his head towards Sakura, she holding up a small package for him. "Happy Birthday."

"Sakura-chan…" He took it from her hands gingerly and turned it over and over in his hands, "what is it!"

"Open it up." She coaxed him, he smiling as he did so. It didn't take long for his smile to falter as he held up two silver bells. With a lost face, he turned to her frowning face. "Don't forget Naruto…" She spoke to him in a hollow voice as she turned to him, her eyes void of emotion. "You promised me you'd bring him back."

**AN:** Yeah…I might make a spin-off….I didn't even expect that…O.O


End file.
